


The Seasons of Our Love

by Bennyhatter



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Affection, Alternate Universe - No Zombie Apocalypse, Alternatve Universe - High School, Boys In Love, Crossdressing characters, Daryl Dixon is a sweet sassy thing, Gift!Fic, M/M, Mentions of Homophobic Slurs, Mentions of Violence, Musicals, Rick Grimes is so in love, School Play, cuteness, sap, they're so fucking cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 01:26:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7664944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bennyhatter/pseuds/Bennyhatter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daryl and Rick are in a high school senior play together, and they manage to fall in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Seasons of Our Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HigherMagic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HigherMagic/gifts).



> Two things in one day, look at me go!
> 
> This is for my darling twin, whose birthday was recently. Our tradition is to write each other birthday fics, and I've been so damn busy of late that it's taken until now for me to get it finished. It's not the longest thing in existence, but it's full of sap and cuteness, just like she asked for.
> 
> I hope this hits the spot, darling! Happy belated birthday! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
> 
> Unbeta'd, so all mistakes are mine. I hope it's still acceptable. *snuggles everyone* Also, the title sort of comes from one of the songs from R.E.N.T, so yeah. <3

For Rick Grimes, there is no one in the world like Daryl Dixon. Sure, the first time they met they were auditioning for the school play - a requirement for all seniors in their high school since Rick's dad and mom attended. He can't ever remember having seen Daryl before the other boy stood on the stage and sang his piece - and won the role of Angel Schunard, the crossdressing sweetheart of Alphabet City.

 

How miss Carol talked the school board into allowing R.E.N.T for the senior play, Rick has no idea. Considering the content - and he has seen the movie, so he knows exactly how gritty and heart wrenching it can get - it's amazing any school would allow it, much less a high school in Georgia.

 

Agreements did have to be made, and a few scenes and most of the swearing were altered to make it more appropriate, but for the most part, the meat of the musical remains, and Rick hadn't even cared about Shane’s good-natured teasing when he tried out for the role of Roger.

 

He got the part, but after meeting Daryl and seeing how he came alive from the shy, withdrawn boy who hardly spoke in class and barely looked someone in the chin, much less the eyes, Rick wished he would have tried out for Collins’ part instead. A good-natured kid named Bob got it instead, and in the end Rick couldn't even be that mad, because if ever there was a teenager passionate and funny enough to encompass Tom Collins, it would be Bob Stookey.

 

Watching Daryl and Bob interact, Rick couldn't deny the chemistry between them, and it transferred well to their characters. Angel and Collins are a couple, a very affectionate one, and seeing Daryl's natural shy hesitancy soothed by Bob's gentle timber made Rick swell with both pride and jealousy.

 

In the end though, no one kisses Daryl like Rick does. Roger is a straight man, and mad about his downstairs neighbor Mimi, but Rick is a completely different story. He's bisexual, young, and so attracted to Daryl he almost can't see straight sometimes when the other boy is coming apart in his arms.

 

Daryl is wild in a way that reminds Rick of a wolf. He's a natural follower, although his bite is legendary when any aspect of himself is called into question. His quietness and his shyness stem from social anxiety and awkwardness, but Daryl is by no means a wilting flower. He is strong and passionate, and so beautiful that he can and does frequently take Rick's breath away.

 

They spend a lot of time hiding behind the sets during rehearsals, especially when neither of them are needed on the stage. Rick will sequester them away in a shadowy corner and steal kisses while Daryl tries to practice their lines, even through his half-hearted attempts to get Rick to practice too. He always inevitably gives in, their fingers tangled and their palms pressed tightly together as they kiss and share the smoky taste of cigarettes or the sweet tang of “Angel's” lip gloss between them.

 

“I'll be your shelter,” Rick murmurs sometimes, just to watch Daryl scoff and try to hide his blush behind hid dirty blonde bangs. His blue eyes always sparkle brighter though, his shining lips turned up onto a bashful smile when he leans in closer.

 

“Don't got much baggage to lay at your feet,” he replies. It makes Rick grin so wide it hurts his face, and he pecks more kisses against Daryl's thin, perfect lips and feels the way they open for him.

 

“Sweet kisses, I've got to spare,” Rick whispers into the intimate air between them. “I'll be there, and I'll cover you.”

 

“Ain't even your lines,” his boyfriend always snorts, but he never stops Rick. He seems to crave the affection, and he comes alive beneath the endearments and the gentleness in a way he can never achieve with Bob. They're good in their roles, good with their interactions, but they will never be what Collins and Angel are. They can never be what Rick and Daryl are, and Rick loves it. He loves Daryl.

 

There's a lot of controversy over the school putting on this particular play, but miss Carol is a force to be reckoned with, and any and all cruelties from the student population are handled with a swift justice that leaves them reeling. Carol Peletier is a sweet woman, but her bones are made of iron and her words lash like a whip when she's protecting her students and their feelings.

 

Daryl alone gets more attention from the woman than anyone else, but she never has need to defend him. He's more than capable of doing that himself, which Shane finds out first hand when he cracks a joke about the Dixon dressing in drag, and what that might mean for his calling in life. Rick is ready to punch his best friend in the face, but Daryl gets there before he can, and the resulting fight leaves Shane limping away to lick his wounds for weeks in Saturday detention. Daryl gets a written warning and two weeks of detention as well, but Carol goes to bat strongly for him, and the principal agrees not to expel him.

 

All in all, it's a very upsetting few days, and if Rick clings harder to Daryl during the following few rehearsals - if he refuses to let his boyfriend out of his sight - no one says a damn thing. No one but Shane at least, and that's to apologize for being a dick.

 

The group of seniors as a whole grows closer over the weeks. Rick enjoys spending time with Michonne, who reminds him so much of Joanne from the play that it's almost mind-boggling. A pretty blonde named Andrea is the sassiest Maureen he's ever laid eyes on, and the passion and chemistry between the two is staggering. Rick often wonders if they're more than just friends outside of their roles as lovers, but considering how he and Daryl are, he figures if they want to reveal it, it will be on their own terms.

 

A burly football player named Tyreese is their Benny, and a wide-eyed, gentle Asian boy named Glenn becomes their Mark. His girlfriend Maggie is casted as Mimi, and Rick privately thinks she's perfect for the role. She's sassy and flirty, and when she turns up the sensuality, she blows their minds.

 

And yet, no one is as perfect to Rick as Daryl. The first time he sees his boyfriend in a dress, which is the Christmas morning their characters first meet, he has to sit on his hands through the whole scene while Daryl twirls and dances and leaves all of them speechless and gasping as he owns the entire space he's been given. When he ends the song, he does it with a flourish and a wink, his head tilted and sweaty tendrils of hair clinging to die smooth jaw as he smiles at them and pants from exertion.

 

The response is overwhelming, and Rick watches Daryl's confidence turn to startled shyness as the rest of them hoot and holler and clap their hands. Rick is cheering the loudest, and as soon as they have a free second, he whisks his boyfriend away into the shadowy spaces behind the sets and kisses him breathless.

 

“You are so fuckin’ perfect, darlin’,” he praises as he cups Daryl's face and presses kiss after kiss against his mouth and nose and cheeks. Daryl is blushing and preening under the affection, his flared skirt a little rumpled by the press of their bodies and his high-heeled boots thinking loudly against the wooden stage as he shifts and adjusts his stance so he can get impossibly closer.

 

“So you liked it, then?” Daryl whispers happily. “I know I ain't nowhere near as good as the guy who actually played Angel, but-”

 

“None of that,” Rick admonishes with another kiss or three. He can't help but get lost in everything Daryl is, because the other boy is so much more than anyone - even Rick, who has known him for only a few months and barely remembers seeing him in classes before then - had ever expected. He remembers a hooded figure huddled in the back of classes, his head down as he refused to speak or look at anyone.

 

It's hard to see that boy in Daryl now, when his cheeks are pinked and his eyes are so bright they seem to glow. His arms are wrapped around Rick's neck to keep him close, their words barely breathed into each other as they try to stay quiet until miss Carol calls for them again. Rick has to kiss him, their mouths fitting perfectly together as he wraps his andros around Daryl's thin waist and feels the strength beneath his hands.

 

Daryl is so much more than anyone ever gave him credit for. He's full of potential and crackling with passion - he just needed someone to see it in him and give it an outlet. As Angel he has that, and with Rick, who lovingly coaxes it all to the surface and helps him funnel it into what he needs, he has grown so much in just a short few months. He's become something no one ever imagined, and Rick cannot wait to see what else he has to show.

 

On opening night, as they wait for the curtain to rise, the main cast stands side by side in a line, just like the Broadway cast does. As the music starts to play, Rick squeezes Daryl's hand quickly and shares a smile with his boyfriend. Daryl smiles back, looking beautiful in his costume and ready to change the world.

 

“Today for you,” Rick whispers, and the smile that stretches across Daryl's painted lips makes his heart swell until the love spills over and colors the air around them in a way only they can see, because it's a love only they share.

 

“No day but today,” Daryl replies, and then they face forward as the curtain reveals them. The spotlight shines brightly on them, the music pumps through their veins, and as one, they sing.


End file.
